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MUCH TO MY surprise and I'm sure to the surprise of many people, Dave Trembley will return as the Orioles manager next season. The team announced Friday afternoon that it would pick up his option even though at the time the team faced the possibility of losing 100 games for only the third time in its history and had just lost 13 games in a row.It was the right decision.
It would have been easy for Orioles President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail to get rid of Trembley considering the team's AL worst 61-98 record on Friday afternoon. Most teams make the manager the scapegoat when they have a bad year. It's the easiest thing to do. The Orioles certainly have gone down that path with eight managers since 1994.
They could have gone after a more well known manager. (Maybe Earl Weaver is available. That worked out so well the last time the Orioles convinced him to come back.)
The Orioles are a young team with eight players under the age of 25 making their major league debut this year. They need a manager who is used to working with young players and Trembley is just that.
He spent 20 years working as a minor league manager before being named the Orioles interim manager on June 19, 2007. Two months later (after Joe Girardi turned them down) the interim tag was removed.
It's obvious he loves working with the young players. You could see it in his eyes or hear it in his voice when one of them did well and he was asked about them. I remember him coming up to me before a game in 2008 and telling me how good Frederick should be that season. (Unfortunately, he was wrong).
When the Orioles honored former Keys Brandon Waring, Zach Britton and Brian Matusz a few weeks ago, he knew all about the three players, their strengths and weaknesses. I expected him to know about Matusz since he was with the Orioles. But it surprised me he knew so much about Britton and Waring, the first one of the Orioles' top young pitchers and the second a candidate to be the team's future third baseman.
Trembley is far from the perfect manager. He isn't another Weaver, Sparky Anderson or Joe Torre. But to blame him for the Orioles record this year, especially their usual second half collapse (22-52 since the All-Star game going into Saturday's game against Toronto), would be unfair, very unfair.
It was MacPhail who traded closer George Sherrill and power hitter Aubrey Huff after the All-Star Break. The team especially missed Sherrill. They turned the closer job over to Jim Johnson and he has been ineffective in that role.
Trembley isn't the reason that the Orioles' best pitcher, Brad Bergesen, along with outfielders Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold and Felix Pie were injured and missed big chunks of the second half because of injuries.
He isn't the reason the Orioles had four rookies in their starting rotation much of the year.
He isn't the reason pitcher Koji Uehara spent most of the year on the disabled list.
By the end of the season the Orioles were a Class AAA (or class AA team) competing against the likes of Boston and New York. It wasn't fair.
Trembley is still on the hot seat. The pressure is still very much on him. The Orioles didn't give him an option year as they did in previous seasons. The Orioles are going to have to show a lot of improvement next year or else it might be a short season for him. (Hopefully for Trembley, MacPhail will find a closer and a big bat that can help out).
But at least Trembley will get a chance to help the team improve. He deserves it. MacPhail surprised a lot of people by making the right call.
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